Editor’s Note: The following article was written by a youth reporter who is a graduate of the Urban Youth International Journalism Program class at People for Community Recovery, a not-for-profit organization based in the Altgeld Gardens public housing development. In April 2011, youths from People for Community Recovery traveled to France as part of a photography exchange program with youths from La Courneuve, a community near Paris.

When we first left out, we went to the office for People for Community Recovery (PCR), an environmental study group. I was really sleepy, and we sat for about 15 minutes. Then a truck pulled up; It was good and clean, big and shiny. Then everyone started taking pictures. I took pictures of the front of the truck, then on the side of the truck to show the details and the wheels. I asked my friend Hollis, a fellow resident of Altgeld Gardens, how does he feel about going to Paris? He said, “I’ve been on lots of planes taking trips to see my auntie in Georgia, but I am very excited.”

The Eiffel Tower. Photo by Manquaze Allen.

A limo pulled up. I wasn’t that excited but Hollis, Lanesha, Lakesha and Nakia – also residents of Altgeld Gardens – were yelling, jumping and moving their bags out of the PCR office into the limo. Every one got in the limo and I was the last person to get in. As I said before, I wasn’t that excited. We started singing in the limo on the way to the airport; we were singing an R Kelly song. When we got out at the airport, everyone got their bags and went to the counter. The airport attendants weighed our bags then we went through security, which took forever. After security, I went to sit down. We boarded and I felt so relieved that we were on the plane. I got a massive headache once we were in the air so I fell asleep. I slept the whole way there.

We arrived in Paris and went to the hotel to drop off our bags. When I saw the bathroom, I was amazed. “Where is the shower?” I asked. I then opened the door next to the bathroom and there was the shower. My jaw dropped! It was so small, barely enough space for one person. After putting my bags up, I met back in the lobby with everyone in the group and we went to eat dinner. I had a hamburger made the American way with lettuce, pickles and tomatoes. The fries were out of this world. I tasted all of the seasoning the restaurant put on them. They used salt and pepper. It was great. We walked back to the hotel to go to sleep.

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Editor’s Note: The following article was written by a youth reporter who is a graduate of the Urban Youth International Journalism Program class at People for Community Recovery, a not-for-profit organization based in the Altgeld Gardens public housing development. In April 2011, youths from People for Community Recovery traveled to France as part of a photography exchange program with youths from La Courneuve, a community near Paris.

Paris. France. It was something like a dream come true. On Wednesday, April 13, 2011, it was also boring because we arrived too early and had to wait in the small, hot and muggy office of People for Community Recovery filled with over 15 bags and 10 people. After greeting everyone and hugging our family members, our limos arrived. I was filled with mixed emotions. Getting in the limo to the airport I was happy but yet a little sad. I was leaving family and friends. I was thinking of everything that could go wrong as I sat quietly the whole ride. I and the other children and our chaperone and Takia Long took pictures of the whole ride.

Students from Altgeld Gardens pose with their French counterparts.

I had a chill going through my spine getting out of the car at O’Hare Airport. It was a long, tedious process checking in and going through the security measures, but I was patient. I bought a lot of candy since the security said we couldn’t go through with any food or water because of all the terrorist attempts, but all this really made me feel very safe. We arrived very early so if anything went wrong we would have time to spare. Me, Manquaze (my brother), Lakeshia (a 17-year-old participant in the An Eye for An Eye program) and Hollis (brother of Lakeshia, another participant of An Eye for An Eye) played Uno anxiously waiting to board the plane.

Finally about 45 minutes later, we grabbed all of our bags. I couldn’t help but have butterflies in my stomach. We boarded a big white and blue plane with that read “Air France” on the side. The flight attendants greeted us in French, which kind of made me happy, because I knew that I could respond. I put all my bags up in storage. Then, about 15 minutes later, we finally started to move. The best part of the air plane ride was taking off because it was like a roller coaster; I love roller coasters. It was hard trying to force myself to go to sleep knowing I was thousands of feet in the air. The flight was 6 hours. We had made it to the airport around 5 that evening and made it to Paris around 1:30 a.m. I had stayed up during the flight because I was watching movies and talking to the other children in the program. Plus I was too scared I would miss something. Most of the children didn’t go to sleep just as I didn’t. We woke the adult chaperones so we could get off the plane.

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Editor’s Note: The following article was written by a youth reporter who is a graduate of the Urban Youth International Journalism Program.

What is recycling? According to Pennsylvania Recycling Guide, pay someone to write my paper recycling is “taking an item and the separation and collection of material(s) for processing and re-manufacturing into new products to complete.”
Just about everything is recyclable such as aluminum and cardboard, glass, newspaper, batteries and certain plastics.

Alisha Jacobs interviewing youth workers from the People for Community Recovery in CHA Altgeld Gardens community in August 2010, about recycling trash. Photo by Quintana Woodridge

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Altgeld Gardens residents won a $10.5 million dollar Class Action lawsuit settlement regarding environmental contamination with Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) this past summer.

But unlike most class action lawsuit winners, these residents won’t be receiving their money in the form of a check, according to the attorney who represented the residents in the case. Instead, CHA will keep the money and award the plaintiffs credit toward their rent, according to Cheryl Johnson, President of the People for Community Recovery (PCR) of Altgeld Gardens, and Kim Johnson, Assistant Press Secretary with CHA.
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An Altgeld Gardens resident and longtime environmental activist says residents of other public housing developments should be concerned about potential health hazards from the demolition and redevelopment of their communities.